The Revolutionary Movement of 1848-9 in Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Germany: With Some Examination of the Previous Thirty-three YearsMaurice, C. Edmund (Charles Edmund)
History
The Revolutionary Movement of 1848-9 in Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Germany: With Some Examination of the Previous Thirty-three Years
Maurice, C. Edmund (Charles Edmund)
Europe -- History -- 1848-1849; Revolutions -- Europe
But while these peaceable discussions were proceeding in the Slavonic
Congress, more fiery elements were at work in other parts of the city.
During the months of April and May there had been signs of various
kinds of discontent among different sections of the population.
Workmen's demonstrations about wages had attracted some attention;
while one public gathering, approaching to a riot, had secured the
release of an editor, supposed to have been unjustly arrested, and had
hastened the resignation of Strobach, the Mayor of Prague. But the
most fiery agitations were those which had been stirred up among the
students by a man named Sladkowsky, with the object of weakening as
far as possible the German element in Prague. So alarming did these
demonstrations become that Count Deym resigned his seat on the
National Committee; and Count Leo Thun, the Governor of Prague,
threatened to dissolve the Swornost in order to hinder further
disorder; but the opposition to this proposal was so strong that he
was obliged to abandon it.
The great cause of the students alarm was the appointment of
Windischgrätz to take the command of the forces in Bohemia. His
proceedings during the March movement in Vienna were well known; and
the fear caused by his arrival was still further increased by the
threatening position that he had taken up; for he had mounted his
cannon on two sides of the city; namely, on the commanding fortress of
the Wissehrad, on the South, from which he could have swept a poor
and crowded part of Prague; and in the Joseph's barrack, on the
North-East. The members of the Town Council tried to check the
demonstrations of the students, and to persuade them to appeal to
Windischgrätz in a more orderly manner. In order to give dignity to
the proceedings, the Burgomaster consented to accompany the students
on the proposed deputation. Windischgrätz, however, answered that he
was responsible to the King, and not to the Council; though, when
Count Leo Thun appealed to him, he consented to withdraw the cannon
from the Joseph's barrack, declaring that there was no need for its
presence there; but that he had been determined not to yield to the
students.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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